I like how they removed the phrase 'three year duration' and replaced it with "completion in December 2018". Technically the same information, but sounds like " we hope most people will gloss over it and not do the math".

An Alewife-bound Red Line train developed some electrical issues shortly after 6 p.m. and that meant smoke at Central Square, so the train was taken out of service.

Around the same time, some young women got into a bit of a fight on the outbound platform at Chinatown just as a train was pulling in. The train was halted so police could clear up the affray, but, of course, that halted all the trains behind it.

Trolley past its expiration date at Kenmore is causing problems for riders who for some reason insist on heading downtown; train that had to be taken out and put out of its misery at Downtown Crossing causing problems for riders who for some reason insist on heading north instead of south.

UPDATE: Signals died, outbound riders sighed, on the Green Line at Copley.

Passengers of the Green and Orange Line's "super station" at North Station have an underground walkway that exits immediately adjacent to the TD North Garden and the North Station commuter rail concourse. People are only exposed to the elements for about 50 feet or so when making this transition.

However the MBTA has quietly announced that this portal which runs under Causeway Street is closing on January 2 to accommodate construction of the new development next to TD North which is now a parking lot, and the former footprint of the original Boston Garden. Read more.

Or maybe somebody just had to purge their purse right this second and couldn't wait until after she got off the Orange Line this afternoon. Whatever the reason, Sarah Noe says she wouldn't touch that toothbrush.

The MBTA has released what it says are the actual votes by people who care about the paint schemes for new cars on the Red and Orange Lines, and this time, they say, people voted for the same basic scheme for both, just in different colors, for the cars, which could be in service in a few years. Read more.

Transit Police report they are looking for a 40-ish man they say serviced himself in full view of other passengers on an Orange Line train hurtling through Roxbury and Jamaica Plain around 1:25 p.m. on Oct. 14.

He got off at Forest Hills and walked towards the upper busway, police say.

If he looks familiar, contact detectives at 617-222-1050 or send an anonymous tip to 873873.

State transportation officials have three proposed exterior paint schemes for the new Orange, Red and Green Line trains that could begin rolling out in a few years and want the public to help them pick among them.

The first of 24 new Green Line trolleys are scheduled for 2017 delivery, while some of the 152 new Orange Line cars should begin rolling out the next year, followed by some of the 132 new Red Line trains in late 2019.

Boston Police report arresting two teens after one of them threatened some other teens with a taser and the other took out a gun and started firing outside the upper busway at Forest Hills station around 7:55 a.m.